


On the subject of nightmares

by ThM



Series: When life starts [1]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Family, Friendship, I'm Bad At Tagging, Shadows of the Studio, Tagging to be on the safe side
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:07:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22859719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThM/pseuds/ThM
Summary: What happens when someone who gives nightmares receives one? Well your about to find out
Series: When life starts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1643314
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	On the subject of nightmares

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ZanzaFlux](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZanzaFlux/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Back to Where It All Began](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18841015) by [ZanzaFlux](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZanzaFlux/pseuds/ZanzaFlux). 



Ben had never felt this calm in his life, either he was wandering the halls of the studio or he was dragging souls back to the ink, but now he could finally relax. His dream was nothing but a field of grass and flowers, but something was off

His dream was no longer a dream but a nightmare he was back in the studio and instead of the aftermath of joey’s action and the 30 years he spent by himself but the days when joey was still around, he soon realized where he was, the closet, where he spent most of his day’s after his summoning

He was very scared and forcing himself not to go back to his angry way’s, but it was so hard to not snap out, instead of flaring anger he decided to scream out for help, but he knew no one or anything would come

Soon the nightmare ended with him waking up and him screaming at the top of his lungs as his head shot up and soon realized that he wasn’t in the studio but in his room? Ben had never had a nightmare

The silence was broken by Cloudy and Shadow mewling at him, he comforted the two kittens so that they would quiet down, he hoped that his scream didn’t wake anyone up but soon he heard quick but quiet footfalls coming from the hallway

Soon his door opened, Henry walked in “Ben! are you okay, I heard screaming and I came as fast as I cou-“Henry stopped his rant when he saw the look on the demon’s face, Ben looked petrified as the memories of Joey and his doings flooded back into Ben’s mind

The demon hadn’t realized that he had been crying until Henry sat next to him on his bed and started to wipe away his inky tears

There was a strong and awkward silence until henry broke it “you okay?” Ben could only nod dumbly at the animator’s question as he started to tear up again, the memories of Joey flooded Ben’s mind making him angry and sad at the same time

_‘What did you do to this poor thing Joey?’_ This thought constantly ran through Henry’s mind he wanted to ask Ben what happened but he was scared that Ben would either snap or breakdown both he truly feared, he didn’t want the demon to get mad because he knew what the demon could do but he also didn’t want him to breakdown as it would remove the progress June has made with him

“Ben, did you have a nightmare?” Ben still speechless again nodded dumbly he never had a nightmare mostly because he didn’t sleep at the studio, either he wandered the halls or dragged souls back to the ink

Henry sat there wondering what to do to help the demon, but he couldn’t figure it, out soon the room fell quiet again, but this time Ben broke the silence with the clearing of his throat

“ **Henry… I’m sssorry I woke you up, it’sss jussst that I-I can’t forget what J-Joey di-** “Henry stopped the demon from continuing “Ben” the stern voice Henry put out made Ben look at him with a hopeless glare

“I want you to understand something” a brief silence fell upon the room until Henry continued “you can’t forget the past easily, especially if the person from your past is Joey Drew.” Again, a brief silence fell upon the room until Henry sighed and continued once again “instead of trying to forget it, let it out”

The demon was about to interrupt Henry saying he was doing that but henry could sense his mouth opening, so before Ben got his chance to speak Henry cut him off “before you say you have been, I don’t think to stay in a studio filled with hatred, neglect, false hope, ink, and trapped souls is getting it out even with what you did to those trapped souls.”

Ben decided to say nothing, inside, he knew Henry was right, reaping souls back to the ink wasn’t getting it out, it was keeping it in, and Ben didn’t want to keep it in he wanted to let it all out, so he waited for the animator to resume

“See, when I left the studio, I had been extremely angry, and I needed to get it out but doing things like punching a punching bag wasn’t helping.” Henry sighed “See one day I got a call from June asking where I had been and how I was, I simply said I was fine but June saw through that and decided to visit, she stayed for a week pushing me to let it out and tell her what was happening but it didn’t succeed until she used what Joey said against me”

Henry's voice hitched when he said Joey, was the man scarred of Joey or was he too angry at him to even think without hitting something, either way, Henry stopped his rant but then picked it up with a shaky voice

“she used what Joey said against me and that made me snap out at her” Henry paused looking at his hands and sighing shakily, continuing where he left off with a much steadier tone but shaky none the less

“I didn’t hurt physically but I definitively screamed at her but after that, I finally felt peaceful, I apologized over and over and she kept telling me “Il accept your apology if you accept mine” which I had done.”

Soon the animator looked up at Ben but he refused to look back, Henry pressed his hands against Ben’s left cheek, the demon brought up his gloved hand to Henry’s and gently grabbed it, Henry pulled his hand down to Ben’s lap while Ben was holding his hand

Soon Henry’s hand was over Ben’s left lap whilst Ben was holding Henry’s hand, Henry put his other hand over Ben’s gloved hand and started to speak “I don’t want you to hold on to these memories anymore, I want you to have a clear mind and I want you to not forget the past but conquer the past, but the only way to do that is to tell someone”

The room fell silent once more as Henry raised his left arm and placed it on Ben’s right cheek, then he gently turned the demon’s head towards his he continued “I want you to tell me what happened” Henry paused when he saw an emotional shock coming from Ben he continued “Not now! I want you to rest for a bit before you tell me. The last thing I want is you breaking down when you received all of this.”

Henry sighed “I want you to come and visit me now and then, either if it’s because you want to see my house or want to talk about this subject, don’t come if you don’t want to. Do what you want to, visit or don’t, I just want you to one day tell me what happened.” Henry looked up at Ben

Ben could feel the sincerity coming from the animator and wanted to recite his thanks until Henry once more cut him off “you're lucky ya know that?” Ben gazed him a confused glare “I mean not everyone that comes out of Joey Drew Studios gets a happy ending” Ben confused look down at Henry “you and I are examples, I left the studio and was damned to hell by Joey but then returned and got a gift named Bendy. And you, you must have gotten the best gift of all, a family that cares about you, you used to cause havoc in a studio and now look where you’re at! I mean bringing the children presents, finding, naming and taking care of a kitten, making an inky cat that acts just like a kitten and is nice to everyone and finally getting a real home? I mean come on, how lucky can you get!”

Ben started to understand what Henry was saying and he had to agree he was the luckiest ‘survivor’ of Joey Drew Studios. Yes, Henry got a toon, but Ben got a family and Ben swore he heard Henry say he envied him, at this, he chuckled and finally gathered his words

“ **Ttthank you Henry** ” Henry was slightly shocked when Ben spoke, I mean he did that entire time, right? Henry hade pulled Ben back to his feet and thus making a very interesting question appear in Ben’s mind

********

As Henry stood up, he headed for the door until he heard Ben speak “ **Hey Henry?** ”

********

“Yes?”

********

“ **Can you tell me something?** ”

********

“Sure, as long as it helps you”

********

“ **Why did you leave?** ”

********

Henry stood there in the doorway waiting for his mind to recollect his thought’s until he finally inhaled deeply and sighed, walking back to Ben’s bed

********

“Well… I soon realized that I wasn’t being credited for my work, I tried to talk to Joey about it but he wouldn’t listen, I had enough of his antics and decided to leave, but knowing Joey he would do something he would regret. When I headed for the door, something pierced the back of my left shoulder, I checked what it was, and it was Joey’s mail opener”

********

Henry stopped to showed Ben the scarred tissue at the back of his left shoulder Ben asked if he could touch it and Henry let him, saying it wouldn’t hurt. After a couple of seconds of admiring the scar, Henry pull his shirt back up and continued

********

“Joey kept saying he was aiming for the door and trying to intimidate me but it was too late, I removed the mail opener and stabbed into the wall leaving his office and going to my desk, packing as fast as I could I left and I never heard of him again. Then I was drafted sent to the war to serve the country”

********

“ **Did you win any medalsss?** ” Ben asked calmly

********

Henry chuckled “No sadly I didn’t get any medals of honour, but I get promoted a lot, not enough to keep me off the battlefield. I made a ton of money, but in return, I had to go through a lot of scarring moments,” the room once again had fallen silent briefly, Henry continued “ya’ know the one thing I would say was worse then the Studio would be when 3 carpet bombers came down, I, lucky, was 1 of 50 men that survived out of the 750 men in my unit” Henry stopped there but Ben wasn’t done with the questions just yet

********

“ **Why didn’t you come back?** ”

********

This question made Henry nervous and sad to admit, especially to the one that he could’ve saved

********

Henry started to tremble on the bed and Ben could feel it, he didn’t understand why he did it but he put his gloved hand around the trembling animator’s shoulder which calmed him down, his breath was still shaky but he could speak

********

“I loved animating at Joey Drew Studios ya know that?”

********

“believe me when I said I wanted to come back when I got back from the war but” the man began to tremble once more “J-Joey had been so mad at me, but what could I do!” Henry’s rage started to seep through his calmness, Ben could feel it, but he was there to stop him before things got out of hand.

********

“I was drafted involuntarily and didn’t want to go to war and I didn’t want to leave the studio but I had to if I wanted to keep my sanity, he was like a never-ending roller coaster that picks up speed as it turns. See the speed represents his hubris and ego whilst the cart represented Joey, the tracks represented the workers and I was the conductor, I left knowing I would get killed by the ever-increasing ego of Joey and the workers starting to give in to defeat hence making the track unstable”

********

Again, silence filled the room, Ben subconsciously put his head on Henry’s shoulder and started to tear up at Henry’s story and his analogy, it all made to much sense

********

“and then you came in a representative of Joey’s immense hubris, don’t take this as an offence but in this story, you are the rust caused by the ever-increasing ego of Joey, soon the workers started to give in as rust took over, Joey took the workers down with him whilst you took him down and slowed him down until you took over the cart and killed him”

********

Ben quickly looked at Henry, but he continued

********

“But if you didn’t do what you did, Joey Drew would still be torturing people including you. The rust takes over as it made him realize that if your ego grows too big, you’ll forget to treat the track or in this case pay the workers, they’ll either quit or die trying”

********

Henry paused, breathing in and out sharply before continuing “if you didn’t kill Joey then you wouldn’t have this, I’m happy you did the things you did. You saved hundreds of people that wanted to work for Joey from actually working for him, you saved lives like in a war, you fight for your country and save people, you fought and you won claiming your land”

********

Henry had told Ben everything he wanted to hear, no more no less, Ben was satisfied with the answer, a little too satisfied as both Henry and Ben fell into tears Ben was crying much more than Henry, Henry sat there quietly weeping his emotions away

********

The tears didn’t end there as Ben started wailing so loud that even putting a pillow against his face didn’t help muffle the sound

********

Henry noticed the loud bawl and comforted the demon by letting the demon rest his head on his shoulders thankfully Shadow was there to pick up the ink that Ben had left on the pillow, he mouthed a thank you to the ink cat where it simply nodded its head

********

Ben didn’t realize the pain he was still holding in even after the incident at the studio but none the less was he happy that his real creator cared about him, after what seemed to be hours of tears Ben’s bawl had turned into a soft sob, staining Henry’s shirt with his inky tears. 

********

Soon Ben’s tears had stopped or at least he hoped so, as he slowly raised his head still sniffling away until he heard Henry’s calm voice

********

“Listen, Ben, I want you to remember something”

********

“ **W-What isss i-it?** ” Ben said shakily as he hitched heavily at the end

********

“I want you to remember that you have people to talk to whenever you need to clear your mind, don’t go back to the studio anymore it’ll remind of your past and let it overrule you. I want you to talk to either me, Jason or June got it?”

********

Ben nodded still sniffling away

********

“I want you to know that Joey CAN’T hurt you anymore” Ben looked at Henry with his sniffling slowing “I want you to understand that the only way he can hurt you is if you let your memories get the better of you alright?”

********

Ben once more nodded dumbly

********

Henry opened his arms, waiting for the demon to respond to the act, Ben didn’t understand at first but then it struck him, he was offering him a comfort he had not received from the animator, one that he had gotten from June, but not Henry, it felt like Ben tackled Henry when he leaned in to wrap his arms around the man but he didn’t mean to, he simply let his body fall onto the animator

********

Maybe Bendy was right, life is hard until you get used to it and it seems that slowly, Ben was getting used to it but, he still needs to clear his chest. Ben tried to pull away, but Henry refused to let go, soon the demon realized what was happening, it was Henry’s turned to apologize

********

Henry realized that after what Ben’s been through the past 30 years that words wouldn’t help to heal the demon even after telling him how he was… well, drafted, there were no words that could help the demon but his own from the past, and right now his own words would only hurt him even more, the best option was an act of kindness and the best type of kindness was a hug

********

Who knew Ben had so much left in him, it felt like hours before he stopped crying, but it was less than a couple of minutes, soon the demon gathered his emotions and tried to swallow the lump that was created in his throat, he hoped he hadn’t woke up anyone else but even though he was lucky to get all of this, luck was followed by a hint of misfortune

********

Henry flinched when he heard the door opening but Henry was happy to see whom it was that woke up, and the demon a bit surprised, it was any of the other adults nor was it Bendy, Beth was who he expected but the demon wasn’t very good at guessing

********

Sarah walked in seeing Henry and Ben sitting upright on the bed whilst Henry shirt was covered in ink she soon realized that Ben was recovering from a lot of crying and he still looks very sad, Sarah decided to walk up to the bed and sit between Ben and Henry whilst she picked up Cloudy and placed it on her lap, gently patting the kitten. Shadow grew jealous and nudged Sarah lightly indicating he wants attention

********

She gave the little ink cat what it wanted as it purred back to Sarah. Soon Sarah looked up at Henry than to Ben, the soft violet glow that came from Ben’s pie cut eyes helped her calm down, the room was quiet apart from the quiet purring from Shadow 

********

Soon Sarah started to cry softly as if something horrible happened to her

********

“Sarah are you alright?

********

“ **Sssarah are you alright?** ”

********

As both Henry and Ben said it at the same time Sarah quietly continued to cry, as she stifled for words Ben realized what happened

********

“ **Sssarah did you have a nightmare?** ”

********

Sarah nodded as the demon comforted the crying child, she leaned into Ben’s side and wrapped her hands around Ben’s lower waist, Henry simply put his hand on her shoulder while she wept into Ben’s side

********

Henry was about to say something until Ben had said it for him

********

“ **It happensss to the bessst of usss sssarah, even I have nightmaresss** ”

********

Sarah looked up surprised at Ben’s answer

********

“Y-You also h-have nightmares?” Sarah asked Ben sheepishly

********

“ **Yesss I do, that’sss why Henry isss here, I had a nightmare and ssscreamed ssso loud I woke Henry up** ”

********

Sarah chuckled lightly at the fact he woke up Henry, she seemed to be better, but something kept telling Ben she was completely fine, his curiosity got to the best of him

********

“ **Sssarah are you sssure you’re okay?** ”

********

A silence fell on the room until Sarah broke the silence

********

“I had a dream about being stuck in that scary p-place again a-and nobody w-was going t-to h-help m-m-me”

********

The end broke both Henry’s and Ben’s heart to make her think of that, Henry made sure he got to talk first this time

********

“Sarah that place will never hurt you again,” Henry said whilst Ben nodded his head to reassure Sarah

********

“You promise?” Sarah said shakily

********

An awkward silence fell upon the room until both Ben and Henry said

********

“We promise”

********

“ **We promissse** ”

********

This calmed down the child immensely, soon the room fell silent once more before a yawn was heard from Sarah

********

“come on Sarah let’s get back to sleep”

********

Henry stood up with Sarah and headed to the doorway until Ben’s hand grabbed Sarah by her shoulder, she turned around to him standing up from the bed, walking towards her and kneeling to her

********

“ **Sssarah whatever happensss I will protect you no matter what it isss** ”

********

“You promise?” Sarah asked quietly

********

“ **I promissse** ”

********

“Pinky promise?”

********

Ben stuck out his human hand and retracted every finger but his pinky and brought it to her pinky and closed his pinky

********

“ **Pinky Promissse** ”

********

This made Sarah giggle as she walked out of the room leaving Ben alone with Cloudy and Shadow once more

********

Soon the demon was back on his bed and covered by the soft quilt as he slowly fell into a deep sleep

********

His dream was much better than the last he was with everyone, even Henry and Bendy, in the living room all having a great time, he was happy and so was everyone else in the room the feeling of warmth and peace flooded Ben’s bond with Shadow whilst the ink cat purred in a content manner, as the ink cat fell asleep once more.

********

**Author's Note:**

> I kinda deviated from the ending of Back to where it all began. Ya know, the last sentence of "Ben closed his eyes and for the first time, slipped into a peaceful slumber." Yeah, I decided in my brain to say "Nah, it's just; Ben closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep" So yeah. Also, this is my first Archive, I'm still getting used to the platform, I will take time to upload (first five will be literal spitfire) but because not having a lot of school work is cool, I'll be able to upload faster. so yeah I hoped you enjoyed it. I did not create this series, the fanfiction is by ZanzaFlux, go check it out, it's more detailed and smooth, I guarantee that you will fall in love with the story, it's so immersive, check it out! (side note; my work isn't as detailed so yeah)


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